CHILDREN at a Runcorn primary school are learning the importance of caring for their environment after taking part in a woodland project with Arena Housing Association.

An area of woodland in the Brookvale estate, known locally as the Gorse, has suffered at the hands of people who have been fly-tipping, damaging trees, using the area to set fire to cars and even ringing the fire brigade only to throw things at them when they respond to the hoax calls.

In a bid to break the cycle of anti-social behaviour, a member of the Woodland Trust has been visiting Brookvale Primary School to teach the children about respecting their surroundings and how to appreciate the benefits of living in a clean and safe environment. It is hoped the children will grow up to respect natural areas such as The Gorse.

The children visited the wooded area to see the damage for themselves and spent time in lessons completing a project. They presented their finished work to an audience made up of a member of the Woodland Trust, Arena staff and members of the Arena Residents' Association, a police representative, teachers and parents.

Runcorn firefighters also visited the school to show the work they do in the community.

In addition, Arena donated money from its Bonus Fund to install gates at the entrance to The Gorse to prevent cars being driven into the area. Arena customer service manager Sharon White worked with the school on the woodland project and arranged for the money to be donated. Arena also supplied the school with Wellington boots for the children.

Ms White said: 'We wanted to teach the young children about the importance of having natural areas and why they should be respected. The children loved doing the project and couldn't understand why anyone would want to deliberately damage the trees.'

Tim Kirwin, of the Woodland Trust, added: 'Our aim was to instil a sense of community responsibility in the children, which we hope will be carried with them as they grow up. The children struggled to believe that some people choose to damage the environment and we wanted to show them that there were better ways of enjoying the woodland.'

In addition to the school project, Arena is also trying to encourage the Brookvale community as a whole to be more environmentally friendly by recycling its rubbish.

Over a three-week period, large skips will be placed in visible locations throughout the estates, clearly marked with what rubbish should be thrown in such as metal, rubble and soil. At the end of the scheme, the volumes of rubbish will be measured and the residents told how much they managed to recycle.